Blaine Francis Houser, a senior vice president of Icon Communications in Russellville, waived indictment and pleaded guilty Tuesday to a single count of mail fraud in a case that cost his employer more than a quarter million dollars.

When the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Little Rock is involved, the presumption of a defendant’s innocence must be more than theoretic, and confidence that the power of the government is being used fairly and wisely must be tempered.”

Dr. Richard Johns, the Little Rock physician who was charged with 187 counts of prescription drug fraud in Lonoke County in May, was indicted by a federal grand jury on Wednesday as part of a conspiracy to distribute oxycodone.

SWN Production (Arkansas) LLC has agreed to pay the federal government $950,000 to resolve claims that the company tapped unleased federally owned minerals in Conway and Van Buren counties over a three-year period.

Prosecutors scored point after point Friday, but U.S. District Judge Leon Holmes sentenced former State Treasurer Martha Shoffner to 30 months in federal prison — less than half the time that the U.S. Attorney's office sought.

I’m not a doctor or lawyer, but I am the only journalist who tried to warn the public about Dr. Richard Johns, so I’m hereby granting myself license to pour out my heart in a way that is — as I was reminded by the lawyer for the State Medical Board — “not objective.”

As expected, federal prosecutors in Little Rock have filed an appeal with the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in hopes of preserving the seven convictions it won against John Stacks, owner of the Mountain Pure bottled water company.

A federal judge in Little Rock has reversed Mountain Pure LLC owner John B. Stacks' conviction on two counts of making false statements to the Small Business Administration and ordered a new trial on five other counts of which he was convicted by a jury in October.